NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
"Why me? Why did I have to go so soon? I could have done more with my life. Who is going to take care of the children?" These are thoughts that could have poured through the mind of the woman in the marble stele. The chosen piece is a marble grave marker from the mid-fourth century B. C.
It depicts a woman sitting to the right side, with her left side facing the world, in a chair with her head half covered by a shawl of some sort. The stele, which is made of marble, is forty-eight and one eighth inches high, and it was found sometime before 1827 in Acharnae, Midi, in Attica. There isn't much known as to who carved it, or as to whom it is a carving of. This could be because in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a great deal of great artifacts, especially sculptures were gathered up and collected by Europeans (Art of the Western World).
This caused some statues to be damaged during their transports, and many of them have lost pieces of their histories due to the harvesting of these artworks en masse. This piece in particular was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1948, as part of the Harry Brisbane Dick Fund (MMA postcard). Its purpose is the only thing that is really known, and that is that it is a grave marker. However, it is still beautiful and charming nonetheless. Based on the Story of Art, the untitled marble stele would be classified as a Classical piece of art. This means that the Greeks of the time tried to capture true human essence by portraying people as beautiful, but trying to portray real positions of people at the same time.
The artists tried to break away from the stiffness of the archaic style. It infuses ideality with reality. The woman, proportionally, looks like the size of an average woman, but she has a beauty to her. Her face is smooth, and her nose, although it is broken, is the ideal size.
Her nose, mouth and eyes are all properly distanced from each other. Perhaps this is what the woman who died looked like at her prime in life, or maybe this is how she looked before she died. Yet, it may not even be the person for whom the grave marked. Perhaps it is supposed to be a goddess watching over one of her priests or a mother looking down on her poor, dead son. Whoever wrote the information at the museum was reminded of a quote by Aristotle that pertains to death. The quote reads, "In addition to believing that those who have ended this life are blessed and happy, we also think that to say anything false or slanderous against them is impious, from our feeling that it is directed against those who have already become our betters and superiors" ("Of the Soul, " quoted in Plutarch, A Letter to Apollonius 27).
This passage accurately describes the emotion that emanates from the piece. The stele is a sandy, marble, not a bright, sun-bleached one. It has been eroded and damaged over time, but the viewer can still imagine what it looked like when it was first carved all those years ago. The artist of this piece definitely didn't struggle with the use of movement. The way this piece flows together expresses that clearly.
The woman is draped in a shawl or robe, and it covers the majority of her body. With her right hand, she is holding some of the material away from her face so that it can be seen. This also exposes some of her hair, which is braided across the top of her forehead, creating a border between her face and hair. Her nose has been chipped off, but this hardly disturbs the tranquility and harmony of the piece. It just makes the woman appear even more somber. Her gaze is one of reflection too.
It is a question of what she is reflecting upon, her own life or another's. This evokes a sense of sadness or heartbreak possibly. Her eyes, although they are only a sandy-white marble without further detail, tell her viewers that she is serious, and they try to produce empathy. The woman is missing body parts though, and it is unsure whether the sculptor ever gave them to her. Her absence of legs adds to her sad look. If she did have legs at one point, they could have added to the mood of the piece.
If they were crossed, the woman could have looked more relaxed. If the were straight, she could " ve looked more majestic. And, if they were strewn about, she may have looked more in thought. It looks as though she did have legs at one time and they were broken off. Her ears are also not visible, and this is slightly puzzling. Although, from the angle of the viewer, only her left ear would have been visible anyway.
This may have been an oversight on the part of the sculptor, but the ear was probably intentionally put under the cloth. The lack of an ear or any other small detailed object on the left side of the face may be to show the smoothness of the marble or the flowing curvature of the face. Her chair is hardly that of a peasant, and the artist crafted the chair with exquisite detail to ensure that the viewers knew the status of the woman. When looking closely at the chair, it can be interpreted as being more of a throne. She has a cushioned seat, which if colored, would probably be a majestic purple or a crimson red maybe. The back of the chair is a flat back that rises up to right below the shoulder blades of the woman, and it is meant to be sat in using good posture.
Even the armrest is very straight and rigid, and the base of it was decorated exquisitely at one time it appears. There was some kind of small ornamental sphinx or other winged creature that adorned the chair. It connected the armrest and the base of the chair, but it, like the woman's nose, couldn't stand the test of time. It has, since the time of its carving, been broken at the head, so it is not determinable exactly what the creature was meant to be. However, what remains of it implies that it had a meaning of royalty or power because the wings of the statuette are all that remain, but they are finely detailed. The base of the chair, too, is rigid and uncomfortable looking, but it suggests power or wealth.
It is constructed from two cylindrical posts that are connected by a rectangular piece. Although it is plain looking, it has a sense of stability as well. Her gown looks very feminine, almost mother like. She wraps herself up in it as though it is protecting her from something, maybe death or the pained death of a loved one. She uses it like a security blanket, shielding her from whatever horror or sadness that befalls her. It is although the material is part of her skin, especially on her left arm and upper back.
This shows how fine and smooth the artist was trying to portray the cloth as being. Her gown's fluidity, as it covers her head and the majority of her body, greatly contrasts the straightness and the rigidity of the chair. It is as though the gown is part of the woman, and the chair is the frame. When saying the chair is the frame, it is only meant that the majority of the emotion is in the woman herself. The chair is more of a clue as to her status, and how people lived during the time of the sculptor. The way this piece can be interpreted is like an egg.
The hard protective part being the chair, and the woman in the chair being the most important part, like the yolk. She is the soft, emotional part, and the chair is almost void of emotion, if it weren't for the way she is interacting with it. She is slouching in it and staring at the ground, as though she is in deep thought. Her body doesn't directly mimic the straightness of the chair. She is breaking away from the discipline that the chair tries to provide. Historically, this statue shows us that the Greeks did care about their dead, and that it was customary to respectfully dispose of the dead.
We, today, still popularly use statues in cemeteries as grave markers. The woman also expresses a sense of misunderstanding of death but at the same time, an appreciation for whatever is to come afterward. The feelings she conveys are not much different from the ones that people today still feel when a loved one dies. This piece shows that we, as humans, haven't changed emotionally since the mid-fourth century B.
C. Today, that woman could be sitting in a designer business suit in a tall wooden chair in a funeral home, and she could still have the same exact expression and posture. The American society of today isn't really that much different from the society of the Ancient Greeks, and our ideas of what is beautiful, ugly, happy and painful are still basically the same.
Free research essays on topics related to: left side, one time, century b c, fourth century, loved one
Research essay sample on Century B C Fourth Century
